Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Cobra Kai’ brings a twist to the story of ‘The Karate Kid’ villain, Johnny Lawrence, by presenting him as a misunderstood person whose life was changed following his feud with Daniel LaRusso. Through the events of the show, we discover that he wasn’t half as bad as the original film made him out to be. Focusing on this gray area between good and bad, the show reintroduces John Kreese and Terry Silver, who have much less ground to claim themselves to be the redeemable villains who were the victims of their circumstances. By the sixth season, both the characters have gone through a significant arc, and in the end, only one fitting end remains for them. SPOILERS AHEAD.
John Kreese Receives a Redemption Arc in Cobra Kai Season 6
Over the course of the six seasons of ‘Cobra Kai,’ John Kreese and Terry Silver have been through an arc of their own in which Kreese is established as a grey character while Silver is a complete villain with nothing to redeem him. The events of the Sekai Taikai tournament, where a brawl leads to the death of Cobra Kai dojo’s star-fighter, Kwon, lead Kreese to reconsider his actions. At the beginning of the season, the kid was nothing but a pawn for him to use against Daniel LaRusso and his Miyagi-do, which now also included Johnny. However, whatever plans Kreese had for them never included the death of a kid, that too with the weapon that he had smuggled into the tournament.
Kreese blames himself for Kwon’s death, and rightfully so. This guilt brings a significant change in his behavior, and we see this with his decision not to train in Kim’s dojo anymore. When he discovers that Master Kim intends to send Yoon to fight the tournament with the intent of more than just winning the competition, Kreese sends the kid home so he doesn’t have to deal with the sensei’s brutal games anymore. Later, he also encourages Kim Da-Eun to take control of the dojo from her grandfather and change things for the better.
Following this, Kreese returns to the Valley, where he first seeks out Tory and apologizes to her for setting her on the wrong path. Eventually, he finds Johnny and apologizes to him, which leads to a cathartic moment between the duo, which touches upon the events following ‘The Karate Kid’ movie, where Kreese terribly mistreated Johnny for losing the fight to Daniel. The confrontation between them doesn’t wash away all the bad stuff Kreese has done, but it does open the space for them, especially Johnny, to heal. Moreover, it also gives Kreese the opportunity to give the Cobra Kai dojo back to Johnny, where it belongs. But that’s not all he does for his star student, who is like a son to him.
John Kreese and Terry Silver’s Final Showdown Brings a Fitting End to Their Tale
While Kwon’s death opens Kreese’s eyes to his vanity, it does nothing to stir Terry Silver’s soul. The man remains adamant about winning the Sekai Taikai and crushing Cobra Kai and Miyagi-do, and the reason behind it comes to light when he reveals that he is sick and will die sometime soon. One would think that coming so close to death would have him look back at his life and mend his ways, but it makes him even more villainous, such that he is ready to go to any lengths to get what he wants. While Daniel and Johnny are prepared to face him and his crooked ways on the mat, they have no idea what he can do outside of it. Kreese, on the other hand, knows his former friend inside out.
When it becomes clear that Johnny’s Cobra Kai is set to win the Sekai Taikai, Silver becomes desperate to turn things around for his dojo. Things get to a point where he orders his henchmen to attack Johnny’s wife and newborn daughter, which would weaken the man and force him to lose the tournament. Luckily for Johnny, Kreese expected this behavior from Silver. He snuck his way onto the boat to keep an eye on Silver and quickly neutralized the man who was sent to find Carmen and baby Laura. But that’s not the end of it. Kreese knows that once Johnny and Cobra Kai win the Sekai Taikai, Silver will only get worse ad will try to do something worse to them, maybe even kill them.
The only way to prevent that is to remove Silver from the equation once and for all, and that’s exactly what Kreese does. He knows he cannot win the fight against his opponent, so he takes advantage of his surroundings and creates an explosion on the boat that seems impossible for a person to survive. One might say that since we don’t see Kreese and Silver’s dead bodies and nothing about their deaths is mentioned later in the show, one or both of them might still be alive. While that may be a possibility, one must consider the fact that the duo was pretty close to the explosion, which reduces their chances of survival drastically, if not erase them completely. In any case, there is little to no chance that either of them will resurface to create any more problems for Johnny and Daniel, and considering everything, there couldn’t be a better end to their story.
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